The Writer's Voice

Some people are very good at enlightening us in ways we hadn't predicted.

Having been introduced to Daisy as a Writer and Producer, she talked to us about her experience of working in the film industry, straight from graduating as a scriptwriting student.

A working history, in brief...

Daisy's first job was as an assistant producer for the Discovery Channel, also working as a script reader for Working Title. Daisy went on to work in distribution, working for Downtown Pictures, followed by three years in acquisitions and development for international sales agent and financier Capitol Films. She moved into production when joining producer Nick Hirschkorn for Five Children & It and helped him to launch the film arm of his commercials company Feel Films in 2004.
As head of development for Feel she managed a slate of literary adaptations through development, production and distribution, including the upcoming production of The Song of Names written by Jeffrey Caine. She was Associate Producer on Feel’s production Skellig starring Tim Roth, John Simm and Kelly Macdonald. She worked with Enlightenment Films as a consultant and Associate Producer on I Can’t Think Straight and the multi award winning The World Unseen.
Daisy was a founder of Stellar Network UK, a membership organisation connecting professionals in film, television and theatre. As a script writer, she is represented at Casarotto Ramsay. She had a radio film review slot on Classic Gold for a number of years and has served on various panels and short film festival juries, and taught on numerous script development workshops.

Daisy gave some great tips throughout her talk, helping us to see the industry for what it is - ruthless.
Her advice to read as MANY scripts as possible, to network (that word again), to embrace change and to think about what type of writer I am? - what my 'voice' is?... helped me to put my thoughts into perspective and to think more broadly about my writing journey. I have never had grand notions of BIG things happening quickly (if at all)...I realise that this is a tough business and I'm prepared to work hard to pave my way. Daisy shed light on areas, such as the importance of spreading myself as thickly as possible. She even suggested working as a script reader for free at first as a way into the industry -  a way to make contacts and raise profile. I'd never considered this before and I appreciate the knowledge of her first-hand experience.

So what type of writer am I? And what is my voice?...

I would say I lean mostly towards gritty drama....ideally for TV, quite probably at some point for radio. Having said that I want to explore horror/crime thriller and also comedy. In a session with Serena Cullen, she made it clear that a writer should write for one genre only. That you should not cross over. I can see why writing across genres could be problematic in terms of  a building and maintaining a repertoire. However at this early stage in my journey I cannot say for certain where my writing is best placed only that I do enjoy writing drama.

My voice is my dialogue with others and with myself. It's a way of expressing, exploring and planting seeds.....